This International Dateline episode includes two segments: Code of the Camorra and Dr Sima Samar Interview.
Code of the Camorra
For centuries, mafia families and clans have been deeply ingrained in the Italian social fabric accepted as part of 'a l'Italia' - the Italian way. By the 1980s, Italian authorities were eventually forced to confront the mafia and its political backers. However, the old clan structure and its hold on local communities through a so-called 'code of honour' survived. Recently, the mafia has resurfaced with a vengeance. On the streets of Naples, mafia clans now act with a new brutality and an impunity that is quite terrifying. At some personal risk, Dateline reporter Nick Lazaredes has been in Naples investigating the resurgence of that city's brand of the mafia, the Camorra.
Dr. Sima Samar Interview
Recent protests over a 'Newsweek' report, later retracted, about the desecration of the Koran led to 16 deaths. There has now been a shocking report published in the New York Times describing Abu Ghraib-style torture, abuse, and the deaths of Afghan detainees in US-run prisons in the country. It was this troubled scenario that took the Afghan President Hamid Karzai to Washington this week for a meeting with US President George W Bush. Dr. Sima Samar was deputy prime minister in the interim post-Taliban government in Afghanistan and her country's first-ever woman minister. Currently, Dr. Samar heads the Human Rights Commission in Afghanistan. Dateline reporter George Negus interviews her from Kabul about these recent developments.
About International Dateline
SBS Dateline, which began in 1984, is Australia's longest-running international current affairs program. It has a well-earned reputation for authoritative and incisive reporting. Dateline has taken the traditional way of producing TV current affairs and turned it on its head. Reporters who used to travel with a cameraperson and sound recordist now travel alone and have the responsibility of both filming and reporting their stories. The reporters became video-journalists, gaining access to people and places that the conventional camera crews cannot.
